One of my favorite things Regan (the morning DJ on Alt Nation) does is the daily Jimmy Eat World singalong. Because life is better with a Jimmy Eat World singalong. My whole mood improved when this morning’s singalong song of choice, “A Praise Chorus,” came over the airwaves.

“A Praise Chorus” was always one of my favorite songs on Bleed American. I remember how far away 25 seemed when I bought Bleed American at the ripe old age of 21 and now I’m further away and on the wrong side. “Even at 33, you’ve gotta start sometime” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, though.

I listened to Jimmy Eat World’s Futures for the first time in forever today. I’d forgotten how much I love that record. In fact, I’d forgotten how much I loved circa 2001-2005 Jimmy Eat World, so then I listened to Bleed American and the Stay On My Side Tonight EP as well. That was one of the better ways I’ve spent two hours recently 🙂

This time four years ago I was listening to Futures a lot. One reason was that I believed then (and still believe now) that Obama should use “Futures” as his campaign song. It’s hopeful without being annoying (which is always a big consideration for me). It stresses the importance of making your voice heard. And there’s that whole “Hope for better November” line. It just seemed so perfect for Obama’s hope and change campaign. And I still think it would work.

I think this evening’s trip down memory lane has given Jimmy Eat World the edge in the my favorite band I never saw live competition. There’d be no competition if their post-Futures records were anywhere near as good as the three I listened to today, but I just can’t get into them. I know they’re in the studio working on a new record, but for the first time in years I have no intention of pre-ordering it. My 21-year-old self is aghast at that, but my 21-year-old self never heard Chase This Light or Invented.

Whoops, I’ve gone a little off message. I didn’t plan to use this post to trash (or even mention) the past few Jimmy Eat World records; I meant to talk about my love of Futures. Oh well.

Oh, Silverchair. How I miss you. I love days like today when I am reminded of just how awesome you were.

The title is true. Silverchair holds the title of “my favorite band I only saw once.” And that’s a total bummer, but I’m so incredibly grateful for that one show. Especially considering that Silverchair held the title of “my favorite band I’ve never seen live” for 12 years. And I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that they would hold that title in perpetuity. But then, miracle of miracles, they put out a record in 2007 and, even more shockingly, toured the states. I don’t think the tour hit even a dozen cities, but I don’t care because Philly was one of the cities they did play. I bought a shirt at the show and it’s on the list of t-shirts I will never get rid of. (By the by, Young Modern, the record they put out in ’07, is really damn good.)

I spent an hour or so yesterday exploring Pandora (no, not the Internet radio site, the Australian National Web Archive). Me + Web archive = searching for band Websites. Throw Australia into the mix and I searched for Silverchair’s Website, natch. It’s there, by the way; Chairpage was archived by Pandora in 1999. The point is, all the Silverchair stuff made me want to listen to them. (They may be my favorite band I only saw once, but that doesn’t mean I keep them on heavy rotation, which is a damn shame now that I think about it.) So last night I listened to 1999’s Neon Ballroom, my favorite record of theirs. And then I listened to their other records this morning.

So yeah, it’s been a Silverchair kind of 24 hours. Hopefully I’ll do it again sometime in the not too distant future.

In case you’re wondering, the title of “my favorite band I’ve never seen live” is currently held by either Jimmy Eat World or Straylight Run. I’ve liked Jimmy Eat World longer (not hard since they’ve been around longer), but there’s still the possibility that I might see them in concert. That’s far more doubtful for Straylight Run since they more or less broke up. But then again, I have seen John and Shaun of Straylight Run three times in the past two years (in Taking Back Sunday, of course). You see why it’s so difficult for me to name a new favorite band I’ve never seen live?